Tag Archives: growth model

Post navigation

I’ve started a climate change project which you can read about here. It’s too long for a blog post, and has many links to terms and concepts, so I recommend you read it here.

This climate change project uses the ProxThink Growth Model to deal with climate change. It will require the input, actions, teamwork and care of many people. It’s an instance of a more general Sustainable Proximities approach. It addresses what are perhaps some of our greatest areas of need regarding climate change, which may be coordination and collaboration at local, regional and global scales. It is an evolving approach which can get better and better. It includes some things you and others can begin doing right now. It lists some next steps.

Currently, the main part of the project is a proposal. The proposal not only discusses how the Growth Model can be put to use, but also what it might be like. The combination of the Growth Model and technology can shift a focus on revenues and costs to a focus on ProxMonitors, proxri and relationships for some proximities related to climate change. This might be sort of like the give and take of a neighborhood, relationship, friendship or perhaps being a considerate traveler. You may want the neighborhood, relationship, friendship or location you’re visiting to survive, thrive, and take care of you as you take care of it.

The section on what you can do now has some suggestions and standards for people who have a website, blog or social network page. There is plenty of information available via the media and Internet about things you can do to help with climate change, from lightbulbs to transportation to conservation and more. However, in our proximities related to the climate change situation, we often don’t know what other people are doing, how the proximity is doing and how to connect with other relevant people. The three things you can do right now address these issues, by leveraging existing capabilities of the Internet such as tags and search. The three things involve proxri, ProxMonitors and RelatePoints as discussed in the proposal.

Many people think our climate situation is getting worse. I urge you to see the whole climate change project now. Even if you don’t believe in climate change, the general Growth Model thrust of this approach has potential uses in other situations.

I suggest you join ProxThink so you can pick up some of the terms I use as you read the post. At a minimum, you’ll need four definitions to start.

Definition of “situation”A situation is whatever you are dealing with or considering. It might be a problem, challenge, opportunity, place, time, state of affairs, combination of circumstances, you or something related to you, etc.

Definition of “element”
An element relates to other elements. Examples: Elements can be objects, people, ideas, feelings, situations, times, processes, descriptions, groups, relationships, and the proximity, as well as parts or aspects of the preceding examples. Note: An element may be described with one or more words.

Definition of “relationship”
A relationship is any kind of association or connection between elements.

Definition of “proximity”
Most simply, the proximity consists of elements and relationships. Perhaps more usefully, the proximity consists of elements related or potentially related to a situation, in physical, mental and other ways. Proximate elements may be known or unknown. Proximate elements may actually be close, like along dimensions of space or time. Or, proximate elements may seem close in some way, such as mentally, emotionally, logically, etc. The proximity is usually not completely fixed or given, so we can often choose some elements and relationships, and can consider the proximity of a situation to be flexible.

Now, returning to climate change, bold words in the rest of this paragraph will refer toProxPatterns or parts of the ProxThink Growth Model. People with some entrenched interests in maintaining the status quo related to climate change may need to increase their ProxAwareness to accept more of the depth of our climate change challenges. They may need to use the value of some to honor the integrity of some elements, while allowing some uncertainty regarding other elements, in order to relate to their proximity which now includes climate change. On the other side, people who relate to those with some entrenched interests may need to honor the integrity of some elements in the proximity of the entrenched. Meanwhile, both sides may need to relate to the variety in their new proximity, and seek to find valuable differences with which they can create Difference Agreements which help valuable differences persist, adapt and change as needed. Continuing to find ways for valuable differences to persist, adapt and change as needed, is a challenge which may benefit from the use of a number of different ProxPatterns, as well as ProxRewards.

Climate change may well require us to make some transitions faster than markets and governments are typically capable of. There is usually resistance to change among those with entrenched interests, in both business and government. Competition can hamper speed when it is hard to share innovations because of intellectual property protections. And markets can be good for middle scale projects, but can have trouble managing changes when they require many small ad hoc efforts and/or efforts which require larger scale collaboration and coordination among diverse markets, governments, people and other elements.

So it is possible we will need some ways to coordinate efforts which get around these challenges. The ProxThink ProxPatterns, and the ProxThink Growth Model, may provide some help. Just as importantly, they can help in non-emergency situations as well, such as non-emergency climate change situations and other challenging situations.

The ProxThink ProxPatterns can suggest ways to change or adapt elements and relationships in a proximity, as well as evaluate or check actual or proposed changes. ProxPatterns provide clues about ways to start and how to progress, as well as provide options and help us deal with change. ProxPatterns allow for contradictions and complexity, yet can prevent situations from collapsing into chaos. ProxPatterns can help increase viable alternatives. ProxPatterns are simple enough for daily use, and powerful enough for some of our toughest situations.

The ProxThink Growth Model provides ways to collaborate and manage resources while encouraging growth. It contains aspects of ideas found in areas such as sustainability, open source development, competition, systems thinking, innovation, and cooperation, without being any of those exactly. It’s a synthesis, and results from taking a ProxPatterns perspective. It can encourage growth in a variety of ways and of various kinds (not only economic growth), for resources as well as people. This growth model has the potential to be sustainable, flexible, healthy, fun and efficient for people in the proximity of situations in which it is used. In turn, these qualities can help people grow, change, survive and thrive.

So combined, the ProxThink ProxPatterns and Growth Model may help us create more viable alternatives, collaborate and better coordinate our efforts to slow climate change, which may result in faster and smoother transitions to better situations.